AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Oh, Merlin, people, I am SO SORRY I took so long getting this out . . . I tried to make this nice and long to make up for it,although I think being grounded beyond belief explains itpretty well. . . sorry!

RATINGS, DISCLAIMERS, ETC.: Are not being posted this chapter. I'm grounded (yet again . . . ), so I'm doing all my computer work from school. I'll be answering reviews, though I won't get to it today.

SIDE NOTE: I've got some pretty odd spellings going on here in the names of Remus' family, and yes, I know it. Short of everyone trying to teach Harry their names (which gets old if it's not done right), I'll give you the pronounciations right here."Everjoice" is a name I took from a book, and as near as I can tell is pronounced "EV-reh-joyss." "Margarette" is pronounced just like "Margaret," with the accent on the first syllable (not the last one). Mary Anne's name was changed from the Marianne you see early on in the story (I still need to go change it . . . ), and "Angelle" is pronounced like "angel," only the "a" (arm, apple) instead of long (angel, state).

TAKE NOTE! In a review I got for this chapter (yeah, yeah, I KNOW I said I wouldn't revise again until the whole thing was done) I was informed that my formatting is screwed up because I am using "hard line breaks." (Never heard of them, but you guys are my bosses . . . ) I began putting a space between every line because when I didn't the text all ran together. The site has since changed several things, though, so I'm going to TRY going back to regular type. I'll do this chapter today (I got about half done - the formatting should change halfway through the conversation with Remus' twin sisters), and I'm going to ask that you tell me when you reviewif the new format works for you on your computer (the school monitors and my monitor at home are the same size and use the same browser, so I'll have no way of knowing if it screws up for someone else). If it works for the majority of people (the person with a ten-inch screen running Windows 95 doesn't count - most of us are far more advanced than that), I'll start reformatting everything else tomorrow (I must really love you people). Thanks!

P.S. My Yahoo! email is not working, so if you wish to email me just now please do so at sailorsharon7727 (at) sailormoon (dot) com.

Enjoy!
Haruka Lune

"I don't understand what you think is so terrible about the idea," Remus argued. He was fully aware that he was fighting a losing battle, but that didn't mean he was giving up. Typical Gryffindor: Aims for the impossible, and most of the time even achieves it. Getting Severus Snape out of the dungeons for Christmas, however, seemed to be more than that. It was a possibility that Remus had finally met his match.

"Then I will spell it out for you one more time. One: I do not celebrate Christmas. Two: If anyone found out I spent Christmas with your parents - your parents - and relatives, I would have a good deal of delicate explaining to do to the Dark Lord. And three: the idea of 'meeting the family' has never appealed to me. More often than not it is an awkward and unpleasant process in which I am dissected and stared at as though I were a dead beetle on a card. I won't do it." Nobody could ever accuse Severus of incoherency, at least.

"Fine. Then I'll point a few things out to you: One, not everyone in my family celebrates Christmas. We all respect each others' beliefs. Christmas is just a time that it's convenient for all of us to get together - work holidays and all, you know. Two: You could always tell him that either Dumbledore made you come, or I invited you and you took it as a golden opportunity to find out more about the Order, only to discover that people were too busy entertaining five year olds to discuss any real information. And three: My parents . . . " Remus paused, clearly struggling not to laugh. "Trust me, Severus, my parents are, well, they're .. .well, let's just say they're not typical parents. Give it five minutes and everybody's going to be acting like they've known you forever. That's just the way my family is."

"And I suppose I'm going to be expected to help entertain the aforementioned five-year-olds."

"Hardly. They'll be outside most of the time anyway."

Severus Snape sighed. It wasn't often he lost an argument, and it always annoyed him. But on the bright side, he wouldn't have to deal with the teenaged brats it was his "joy" to teach, for three whole weeks . . .

"Harry?"

"Smash him, smash him, you idiot, it's only a rook - huh?"

Remus smiled. "I see you're improving. I wanted to ask you if you were planning on staying for Christmas."

"Er - well - oh, damn it - sorry, Remus- get off, Crookshanks, they're only chess pieces! - I don't really know," Harry managed, between losing a bishop to Ron's queen and two pawns to Crookshanks. Remus smiled again and shook his head.

"I wouldn't ask except I'm going home for Christmas, and I know Mum thought it would be wonderful if you came, so -"

Remus caught a falling castle and returned it to its place on the chessboard, then quickly swooped Crookshanks off Harry's lap.

Harry paused, realizing only when he was kicked by a miniature horse leg that he was still holding his knight in midair. "Are you serious? I mean - actually spend the hols with your family?"

"Why not?" Remus conveniently forgot to mention that Severus was coming - though Harry had become rapidly more accepting of him, their relationship was tenuous at best.

"Wow - that'd be - I'd love that - NO, Crookshanks!"

For being so intelligent, the ginger-haired menace certainly didn't understand the difference between "living" and "charmed" very well.

Harry shook snow off his cloak and pulled off his boots, staring in disbelief at the several rows by the door. "Wow . . . are all of those -"

"The black ones in the back are work boots." One thing Harry hadn't known was that Remus' family lived on a real, one hundred percent authentic farm, so they'd come in past a huge barn that housed crops, horses, cows, and a pig. Or, to be more correct, it had housed a pig until about a month ago, when the pig was killed. "Happens every year," Remus had informed Harry conversationally - apparently his parents raised their own pork. Off to the side of that was a massive chicken coop, and beyond that Harry could see farming equipment and a duck pond. Yes, this was definitely good old Devonshire countryside. The house itself was well built and fairly normal looking, but unbelievably small - Harry wasn't sure how on earth Remus' family expected to fit so many people in, especially with houseguests staying. Remus had said thirty-nine people, and he didn't appear to be exaggerating . . .

"Remus, honey, it's so good to see y'again . . . 'n which one's this?" Harry blushed as Remus' mother, a plump little silver- haired woman in a white blouse with a royal blue skirt and a white apron, turned him all around to look at him, and then drew him in for a hug.

"Mum . . . do you always have to do that?" Remus was blushing.

"Remus Lupin, you're bringin' new family into this house, I've got every raght to find out who they are 'n all. Now Ah do believe I asked you a q'estchun." (Which was exactly how she pronounced it.)

Harry had to bite the insides of his mouth to keep from laughing as Remus all but shrank from his mother. She was shorter than both of them (Harry guessed she couldn't be much more than four-ten or so), and had the strangest, most drawn-out accent Harry had ever heard, but it was already clear who wore the robes in this family.

"Er - this is Harry, Mum." Next to Remus' gentle tones, his mother's intonations sounded even more out of place.

"Well, isn' that wond'aful." She pulled Harry away from her, holding his shoulders and looking at him all over like he was a son she hadn't seen in years, coming home from war. "It's so good to be meetin' you after all Remus 's tol' me in the letters he almost nevah sends."

Harry couldn't help it anymore - he laughed right out loud, in part at the accent, partly at the funny wording, and, most of all, at the clear hint directed at Remus. He smiled at Remus' mother. "I'm glad to meet you too, Mrs. Lupin."

Harry immediately recognized the eye-rolling gesture that involved a moving of the head - it was a Remus trait through and through. "Mrs. Lupin, honestly . . . what've you been teachin' this boy, Remus?"

"Er . . . ?" Harry looked at Remus in a panic. Was Lupin only his last name, and not his parents'? Or had the Lupins from Remus' story been divorced and remarried, or -

"F'r goodness' sake, Child, call me Gram. Ev'rybawd' else does. Mrs. Lupin . . ." She shook her head. "Wond'aful way to give a body the shiv'rin' hits."

"Gram?" That was unusual . . .

"That's right. You wanta take your things upstairs? Remus c'n show you where ya' goin', honey - put 'im in your old room, Remus, 'cause we nevah took the bunk-beds outa theya."

"All right. Grab your bag, Harry - we've got a bit of a climb. I'm in the attic."

As they wended their way up the stairs, Harry gave in to curiosity. Remus wouldn't think he was being rude . . .

"Remus?"

"Hmm?"

"Why does your mum - you know - talk like that?"

Remus made a face that clearly indicated he didn't know what Harry was talking about. "Like what?"

"All . . . funny. Her accent."

"Acc - oh, oh . . . " Remus started laughing. "Harry, my mum's from Mississippi. She's lived here in Britain since she was twenty - I guess Pop met her when he was doing an internship in the States or something - but she grew up in the Deep South, and that makes a lot of difference. Really, you'll get used to it."

"I might need a translator until I do," Harry quipped, and both of them laughed the entire rest of the way up the stairs.

"So what're you findin' so important, tch've gotta stop writin' t'ya mother, Remus? Here - is 'ere 'nough butter in this?" 'Gram' offered Remus a spoonful of some kind of dough. Remus stuck the spoon in his mouth and then announced from around a mouthful of dough, "Mmph phher. Bffit neemph shmmggphh." Gram gave him a dirty look. "Remus . . . "

Remus swallowed with difficulty. "Sorry, Mum."

"Now you wanta tell me what it was you were tryin' to say?"

Remus blushed. "I only said it's got enough butter but not enough sugar."

"'S because they get rolled in sugah when they done, Remus. Y' say that ev'ry year, 'n ev'ry year I gotta tell you they get rolled in sugah when they done bakin'. 'N when's t'othah one goin't' get here, anyway, darlin'? Thought he was comin' with ya."

Harry turned and glared at Remus, his eyes emeralds of suspicion. "What other one, Remus?"

If Remus had been blushing before, it was nothing to what he did now. "Don't get mad, Harry, but -"

"Oh, no. No way. Remus, you didn't -"

"Mum said to invite him." Remus moved to the kitchen window to stare out at the road broodingly. "And you need to learn to get along with him anyway, Harry, and here there are plenty of other people to talk to if you - I think that's him, Mum," Remus announced, indicating a lone figure in a long black travelling cloak with a black hood pulled up far enough to conceal the face.

"Well now, ain't that wond'aful. He does know t'come in by the sayd door, don't he?" Gram peered around Remus' shoulder to stare out the window, just in time for the black-clad figure to traipse up the snowy beat-out path to the side door off the kitchen.

"Mmm-hmm." Remus turned around just in time to see Harry disappear into the shadows of the kitchen corner. "Harry, stop that. You act like he's going to murder you for being here when - eep!" The strange, extremely un-Remus-like squeak at the end was instigated by a now-cloakless Severus Snape seizing Remus around the waist and picking him right up off the stone-tiled floor to announce his presence.

"I ought to drop you for giving me the wrong directions, you overgrown puppy," Sna- Severus growled, though he in fact merely set Remus back in the same place he'd been standing. (Harry decided he'd better get used to that if they were going to be here for almost two weeks.)

"I - what?" Remus looked confused.

"You told me to turn right at the bridge. I wandered around like a fool for almost two bloody hours before I found someone willing to give directions."

"Well, then, that's your own fault for not knocking on a door. People don't bite around here, Severus."

Gram clucked disapprovingly. "Wanderin' 'round in a storm layk this. It's a wunda you din't freeze to death out theya."

For the first time, Severus seemed to realize there was someone else in the room. "Er -"

Remus quickly picked up the slack with his usual grace. "Mum, this is Severus. Severus, this is my mother, Everjoice, who is going to make sure you leave fifteen pounds heavier than you were when you showed up." Harry suppressed his laughter as Severus formally extended his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Lupin."

Gram . . . squawked. There wasn't much of any other word for it. "Mrs. again! Remus, what have you been tellin' these ones?"

Remus only blushed, so Harry supplied aid from his own recent experiences. "She told me to call her Gram."

Severus raised his eyebrows. "Gram?"

"Er . . . well . . . " It was Harry's turn to blush.

"Well, he's fam'ly, ain't 'e? Mum's fine."

Remus slipped back into the conversation. "Mum, he still calls Minerva and Filius 'Professor.' I guarantee you there's no way he'll come in here and start calling you Mum." He turned to Severus. "She lets people call her Everjoice if they've got a stick so far up their behinds they can't call her anything else."

Harry privately held the opinion that one of these days Severus' face was going to freeze that way, and he'd have to walk

around forever looking like he had no eyebrows. "I beg your pardon?"

"Denied," Remus replied cheerfully. "Where's your -" he showed rather than spoke "luggage," by glancing significantly at Severus' hands and then around the general area, gesturing with his own hands.

"In the breezeway."

"Right, then, I'll get it and - Mum, where's Severus staying?" Remus moved easily from statement to question in one fluid verbal movement.

"In your room, a'course," Gram supplied. Remus instantly took on the visage of a man ready to have an apoplectic fit.

"But - Mu-um! That's completely inappropriate! I've got Harry upstairs with me and there's only two beds!"

Gram stared at him as though either this hadn't occurred to her, or she hadn't considered it a difficulty. "And is there anythin' wrong with two responsible people sleepin' in the same bed when we're already short on space?"

"No! Yes! I don't know! Mum, we're - that doesn't - that doesn't work! It's just - no! Look, I'll sleep on the sofa and -"

"You'll do no such thang, Remus Lupin, and you oughta know better by now. If'n it bothers you so much you c'n take the rug right in your own room, 'n do it your own self. We need that dav'nport f'r Cath'rine's husband if'n 'e ever gets in - she's got the lit'l ones sleepin' with her this time 'stead'a puttin' 'em in sleepin' bags up with Remus," Gram informed Harry in a sort of aside.

"But - I - oh, fine. But I'm warning you, Mum, if I wake up dead tomorrow because I was interrupting his precious beauty sleep, it's your fault, do you understand me?"

"I'll resk it. Now git along upstairs with you-all so's you c'n git back daywn here t'go see ev'rybawdy else. They've been a-waitin' for you."

Severus paused in the doorway to the living room. The sound of voices was quite loud. "Er - what exactly are these people like, Remus?"

"They won't eat you," Remus answered nonsympathetically, pulling on Severus' arm until they were inside the doorway. Then Remus whistled on two fingers. Conversations stopped, and several people glared at him. The redhead Harry'd seen in the picture waved at them with a cheerful call of "Hello, there, Angel Boy!" Remus beamed. "Right, everyone, I'm here, and -" he pulled Harry out from behind him, while several people took advantage of the pause to murmur (or, in the case of the little kids, shout) their greetings - "this is Harry, and -" he turned to extract Severus from the woodwork, only to discover he was missing. He looked up and saw the black-haired man moving behind the twins, Mary Anne and Margarette. Severus was trying to read something that one of the girls was holding up to check the recitation of the other, who chanted along obliviously as conversations slowly picked up again all around them. He appeared to be becoming more and more amused as Mary Anne continued her educated babble at a regular rate. (1)

"- Order of Ravenclaw upon his graduation in 1978, being only the two hundredth peson to ever receive it. He quickly crowned this achievement with his post-Hogwarts studies, becoming the youngest Master in his field since regulations were imposed four - I mean five - hundred years ago, and published a paper on his discovery in 1981 that aconite and silverwort would neutralize each other when mixed in appropriate quantities. Although he left his work in the British Department of Mysteries after the death of the Dark Lord, also in 1981, he joined a Ministry team in October - no, November, sorry - of 1986 that created a prototype of the potion commonly today known as the Wolfsbane or Lunar Denial Potion, and in 1987 recieved an award for exemplary field work upon completing a project that proved the possibility of someday creating a potion that would enable a drinker to remove selected memories for the purpose of study in a manner akin to that of a Pensieve. In May of 1989 he refined the basic Healing Potion, halving the number of ingredients to make it more effective and less costly -"

"What are you doing, Mary Anne?" Remus inquired, as the freckled waif completely lost her self-control and snatched the book from Margarette to check the last date, which she was certain she'd messed up terribly. "Reciting passages for a presentation we have to give when we go back after the hols," Mary Anne responded, still scanning the page for the date of

the Healing Potion.

"What kind of presentation?"

"On an influential witch or wizard from the 20th century - March," she wailed. "March of 1989. It's no use, Maggie, I'm

never going to get this whole thing done right. Why can't you do it?"

"Who are you doing? For your presentation?" Remus prodded.

"Severus Snape. He's the youngest Potions Master ever. He was the only decent choice on the list, really - imagine doing

Marten Gatlinson, ugh."

"I stutter when I get nervous, Rags. And what was so bad about Gatlinson?" Margarette demanded, tugging her book angrily

out of her mirror's hands, as Remus tried to stifle his laughter.

"He invented the hermaphroditic hex (2), Maggie! Have you ever seen that thing performed? It's disgusting! Wait a minute,

was the Freckle-Removal Potion in 1975 or 1976? I wrote it down here as 1976, but I think it was in 1975. I guess it doesn't

matter much, but we'll lose points for it if it's wrong and a lot of people know about it, it's not like - I don't know -

Veritaserum or something, where it's restricted and a year's difference wouldn't matter because nobody would know it

anyway. I wish we could get an interview. Joely Travers is doing Nickolas Merchand and she got an interview. I wonder if he

takes Owl Post . . . ?" Mary Anne chewed absentmindedly on her little finger as she reviewed the notebook sitting open on

her lap, in which it appeared she'd been trying to create their presentation. Seemingly the problem of Potions Masters and

Owl Post had passed from her mind - until a black-clad arm crossed over her shoulder and tapped the page. "The original

test was in 1974 and it was approved for general use in 1979, actually," Severus informed the unsuspecting twin, who let out

a strangely high "yipes!" and jumped about a foot, twisting on her stool. For the first time in his life Severus wished that he

owned a camera and had been holding it at that moment. The look on the girl's face was priceless. First she stared, quite

openly, for all of about five very long seconds. Then she twisted around again, quite quickly, and yanked the book from

Margarette yet again, ripping two pages in the process (Margarette let out a small cry of dismay), and flipped back about five

pages to study the picture next to the biography name, at which point she looked up again at Severus and then held the book

up so as to see both faces at once. Her mouth fell open, and her eyes bulged.

And then she fainted.

Nobody around them missed a beat except for Harry, who had been playing with the little kids and now jumped up in alarm.

Remus and Margarette had caught Mary Anne easily, and Rachael simply passed Remus her handkerchief, which she'd

somehow wetted, to wipe Mary Anne's face. The girl recovered promptly and blinked twice before informing her brother that

she'd just seen "the curiousest thing. I swear, Remy, he was standing right behind you!" Remus ducked his head, not sure

whether to blush, laugh, or just point upward. His dilemma was solved when Severus crouched down next to where Remus

had forced Mary Anne to sit on the floor until he was sure she wasn't going to faint again (it had a tendency to run in the

family).

"Are you all right?" Concern was evident in Severus' voice. Certainly he'd made people faint before, but a wand and a

Stunning spell were usually involved. Mary Anne blinked again and then stuttered, "Are you - I mean - you're, you're, you

can't be- did you - urck - Remy?"

Remus did start laughing then. "This is Severus, Mary Anne." His fiestiest sibling immediately attempted to scramble into a

more dignified position and started to babble again.

"Oh, gosh, wow - I mean - I'm really sorry, it's just - we've been doing a lot in my Brewing class with your work and I only -

well - I mean - how did you do all that before you were even eighteen? I mean, that's got to take a lot of talent, but nothing

was even published for ages -"

"I wasn't even aware I was in any textbooks," Severus commented, picking the abused volume from the floor and flipping

through it to find the much more worn section the twins had been using. Then he furrowed his brow. "Brewing class - you go

to an American school?"

Remus cut in. "The girls took a placement exam - Albus thought they might take higher qualifications than the N.E.W.T.

standard - and both of them got scholarships to Gemini-Taurus."

"Gemini-Taurus, what's that? And what's a Brewing class?" Harry reminded them of his presence.

"A Brewing class is the American version of Potions, Harry," Remus informed his ward, "and Gemini-Taurus is the Gemini-

Taurus New England Magical Academic Institute for Girls. Very small, very select. I'm surprised Hermione didn't try to

transfer there, to be honest. They only take an entry level class of ninety students a year, but she could probably have passed

the exams to get in. I took one out of curiosity and passed it, but of course I couldn't exactly go to a girls' school."

Mary Anne, meanwhile, had been chattering away with Severus, informing him of some kind of experimentation she'd been

doing with a painkiller potion he'd invented - the one drawback to the potion in question was the fact that it was highly

hallucenogenic. Apparently Mary Anne had discovered a way to lessen the delusional effects without impairing the potion's

effectiveness. Severus turned to Remus at the pause in the conversation with Harry. He pointed at Mary Anne, raised his

eyebrows slightly, and informed his partner, "Already I like this girl."

Remus started laughing, so loudly that several of his siblings and in-laws paused to give him some kind of Lupinish glare that

told him he'd better either shut up or get on with it, so he shared the joke. The laughter spread.

The ice was broken.

"All right, you lot, get over here!" Remus was hoarse from talking and laughing all through dinner, but that couldn't stop a

Lupin family tradition.

"What in the name of Merlin are you doing, Remus?" Severus was less enthusiastic, to say the least.

"Reading A Christmas Carol. We do it every year. Or I should say I do it every year. It means I don't have to do the dishes.

Come on, everyone, or are we all going to bed early?" Remus' bed threat did the trick. His nieces and nephews (plus Mary

Anne and Margarette and the three younger Lupin siblings) crowded around the Christmas tree Remus was sitting under, and

little Remus tried to crawl into his uncle's lap. He was displaced by his youngest cousin, a chubby eighteen-month-old named

Angelle, but wasn't going down without a fight - and so finally Remus made one sit with Mary Anne and the other sit with

Margarette, on opposite sides of the group. At that point Harry came racing in, yanking on an old gray T-shirt as he did so

(apparently he'd been helping with dishes, a pretty lively task even with all adults doing it - when the kids were involved soap

fights were inevitable), and plonked down next to Severus so hard the windows rattled. (In his favor, they were pretty old

windows.) Remus looked up at him and smiled, and then opened his old, battered, leatherbound copy of the book, and began

to read.

For a group of kids, everyone was pretty quiet - until Ebenezer Scrooge spoke his first words, sounding like a cranky version

of Ollivander, and then uproar broke out.

"That's not Scrooge, Remy!" Ty hollered, and the twins frowned identical disapproval.

"Yes, that's true, you've always given Scrooge a very nice voice," Margarette commented.

"It's sexy!" Melody chimed in.

"Uber-sexy," Mary Anne emphasized (Margarette looked scandalized), prompting Remus to ask her where on Earth she'd

ever learned a word like "uber-sexy." (Apparently one of her roommates at school used it.)

"Scrooge isn't supposed to have a nice voice, you guys. I just always used that voice because -" the beginning tints of a blush

were slowly creeping up Remus' cheeks - "well, I liked it, but it doesn't really fit. Scrooge is supposed to be an old man."

"But you can't just change Scrooge, Remy," Mary Anne lamented. "It's not the same."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "I think you've been outnumbered, Remus."

"THAT'S IT!" Raena scrambled up onto her knees and pointed at Severus, staring at her brother accusingly. "Remy, you

promised you wouldn't read it to anyone else unless they were here for Christmas!"

At this point Remus could have hidden himself very well in a basket of strawberries, but he stood his ground anyway. "I didn't

read it to anyone else, Raena," he protested, and the thirteen-year-old pouted.

"Then why did he know the Scrooge voice?" Raena demanded. Remus blushed even more heavily, and Severus raised his

eyebrow again.

"You've been using my voice for years, haven't you?" he commented, and Remusnodded - still blushing furiously."It just

seemed to fit."

Remus left the bathroom, soaking wet and breathless, and shepherded the last of the little kids into Kelli's room. It had taken

him nearly twenty minutes to remember that the only way to bathe a two-year-old without waking everyone in the house was

to get in the tub right along with them, and when he'd finally done so he'd immediately gotten a foot to the stomach for his

efforts. (In his nephew's favor, Remus had the feeling it was an attempt to splash, not kick.) He plodded up the twenty-one

unlit, old wooden steps that led to the attic, feeling his way along the walls like an unsteady toddler, and pushed open the

ancient oak door. Two minutes' hard work (wet jeans and tiny buttons on a similarly soaked flannel shirt were nothing to

laugh at) saw him crouching in front of his suitcase in nothing but his own skin. He wondered vaguely if he'd even brought

anything but his old cutoff shorts and T-shirts, and then wondered why he cared, when the door opened again and an

embarrassingly familiar voice inquired, "Do we just leave everything up here or do the packages go downstairs?"

Remus let out a sort of startled squeal, and Harry "mmnnnnpphh"ed from the top bunk (he'd gone to bed right after the story

was over). Remus dragged an overlarge T-shirt quickly over his head. "Let me make myself decent and we'll take everything

down."

"Mmm." Severus sat wand-straight on the edge of the bed and waited - he had no idea where Remus had hidden the parcels

to keep prying young eyes and fingers at bay, so he didn't have much choice of activities. Remus finally located an old pair of

flannel pajama bottoms and tugged them on, his progress hampered by his still-damp feet (they insisted on continuously

getting caught in the legs). Finally he put a finger to his lips and motioned Severus toward the closet, pulling out his wand and

whispering "Lumos" as he opened the old door and beckoned the taller man right into the wardrobe. Severus opened his

mouth to ask what on earth they were doing, but Remus shushed him and opened another door in the back of the closet.

Apparently it was some kind of hidden room or priest's hole (though Severus doubted the house was anywhere near old

enough to have a priest's hole), because Remus ducked inside and immediately began to pass out boxes of presents. Severus

stacked three on top of each other, and then another two next to them. Remus finally slipped out of the cubbyhole in the back

of the closet and picked up a stack of boxes. Severus followed suit, and the pair carefully maneuvered down the stairs.

It took half an hour to put everything under the enormous Christmas tree, and by the time the two men were done they were

both exhausted. It was hard to blame them; staying up until two o'clock in the morning could do that. Remus sat down under

the tree again with a slight "uhnnn" sound. Severus sat down next to him, and as soon as he'd done so Remus laid right back

underneath the massive branches.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Severus demanded. Remus only grinned, grabbed the back of Severus'

shirt collar, and pulled him down. "Look up."

"Wha-"

Remus slipped his hand over Severus' mouth and pushed his head gently down to the floor. "Just look up. Straight up."

Severus finally complied, and what he saw was enough to make his breath hitch. He had assumed that sixteen years of

Hogwarts' gaudy decorations would leave him prepared for anything, but he hadn't ever seen anything like this. Remus' family

apparently preferred the tiny little Muggle lights, which were pretty enough to someone completely unused to seeing them. But

even more than that were the ornaments (3), most of them made of hand-blown glass and heavy, yet fragile. The tiny amount

of space he could see contained part of a glass village, an intricately painted teddy bear riding on a rocking horse, two

porcelain angels, a large gold ball, and several long, glistening icicles. He reached up to touch one, certain that these were

everlasting icicles like the ones he'd seen in the school - and was shocked beyond belief to discover that they were just glass

ornaments, painted carefully on the inside with crystal-colored paint in such a way that they looked completely real. As he

shifted to lay back under the tree again, he caught sight of another ornament, this one home-made, with the red-headed

woman's picture in it. He turned to Remus to ask about it, but Remus headed him off.

"Mum makes them every year and then saves them in shoe boxes. She calls them her memory keepers, or something like

that. That one there is Catherine."

Severus nodded and looked up again, slightly befuddled by the red-white-and-green thing hanging down in front of his nose.

"What is this?"

"It's a candy cane. The little kids love them," Remus explained, pulling several strands of silvery, threadlike flotsam from a

branch and trailingthem over Severus' face with that funny not-quite-giggle. "You look ridiculous!"

"You're the one who put it there," Severus responded crossly, brushing it irritably off his face. "I never asked to have

cobwebs strewn over my person."

"It's tinsel, Severus," Remus rejoined impatiently, as though this were the most obvious thing in the world. "Not

cobwebs." He paused for a moment. "You've never seen a hand-decorated tree before, have you?"

Severus closed his eyes. "My mother was the one in our family who loved Christmas. After she died when I was six my father

wanted nothing to do with it. I didn't see another Christmas tree up close until I went to Hogwarts, and by then I really didn't

care." He opened his eyes again and turned his face toward Remus, who was staring at him incredulously.

"You mean - you've never celebrated Christmas properly since you were six?"

Severus nodded.

"That's ridiculous," Remus declared, pushed himself up on one elbow, and kissed Severus just above his eye. Both of them

immediately flushed and looked in opposite directions. Remus cast his eyes around the room once and then back to Severus,

who looked back to Remus at almost exactly the same moment. "I'm going to make sure this is the best Christmas you've

ever had."

"It already is," Severus responded, and Remus instantly felt terrible. To think that so little had been required to make it the

best - but then Severus continued, and the guilt left him. "I have never been with a group of people who made me feel so

completely like I belonged with them. I wouldn't have that if you hadn't dragged me here to begin with."

Remus smiled. "So you admit you were wrong?"

Severus heaved himself up and pulled Remus up against his side, relishing for just a moment the childish magic worked by a lit

Christmas tree in a darkened room. "I was not wrong. I merely expressed an alternative point of view."

Remus shook his head. He'd won one argument in the past week, he wasn't going to push it. "Of course." He looked at his

watch and all but jumped. "Merlin, I'm supposed to be up at five thirty, I've got to get to bed . . . "

"Then let's go, shall we?" Severus inquired, and Remus nodded. The blonde took two steps and then turned to look at his

partner curiously.

"I will join you shortly," Severus informed him, trying to shoo him out of the room without making undignified hand motions.

Remus took the hint and left the room slowly, turning once to look back at the tree and the man crouching in front of it.

When Severus was completely certain Remus was gone, he pulled a small, plainly wrapped package from his pocket and

nestled it between a box covered in snowman giftwrap and one of the little kids' forgotten sweaters. He stood up and looked

down on it. Then he turned and made his way to the attic, not looking back.

(The surprisingly short) REFERENCE NOTES:

(1) I'm perfectly aware that Mary Anne's recitation isn't the most grammatically correct, nor is it the clearest, but for one she

is trying to remember these things from memory, and out of a Wizarding book (said books not being particularly

understandable at the best of times) for another. If you're really interested to know all the events basically set out here and

you can't follow the carefully-crafted-as-unintelligible babble (which wouldn't surprise me, since I kept deliberatelyrewriting it

until Icouldn't understand it upon proofreading), email me at freesongspirit (at) yahoo (dot) com, and I'll be glad to set out a

quick list for you.

(2) As you probably suspect, this hex changes someone's gender, but Gatlinson wasn't very good with his work and so there

are often strange side effects, like women who have no common sense and refuse to stop for directions (sorry guys).

(3) I feel I must give credit where it's due for this tree. The ornaments on this tree all belong(ed . . . some are gone now) to

my family and the family of my best friend, or were at the very least inspired by ornaments we own(ed). (Some also come

from a tree in a house my mother and I stayed in for three days when we were on vacation - the "Christmas Every Day"

house.) Ever since my dad had a heart attack a week before Christmas (that was four years ago) and Mom ended up in the

hospital at all hours of the day and night to be with him, it's been my job to decorate the tree. The year that Daddy was

hospitalized, he came home with Mom on Christmas Eve, and they got to see the tree just as I plugged it in in the dark for the

first time. I've never seen such a pretty tree, and I sneaked out of bed that night to go lay under the tree and just feel happy. I

must have stayed there for an hour, looking right up through the branches, and I realized that you've never seen the prettiest

part of a Christmas tree until you've lain underneath one - hence Remus' love of doing this. (Honestly, try it sometime . . . it's

beautiful.)